Leaders win trust when they show a bit of humanity

Tim Leberecht’s recent blog on HBR reports on a couple of global surveys that indicate that our trust in leaders in diminishing. He suggests some quirky and interesting ways for leaders to build trust – get emotional, be whimsical, and express doubt. There’s some good advice wrapped up in those catchy titles.

I followed Tim’s sources back to their original reports, interested in understanding more about the declining trust in leaders.

The Edelman report’s review of the Australian data shows that trust in organisations – political, business, not for profit and media – has diminished. That measures of trust in politicians have fallen is unlikely to come as a surprise, but that there is less trust extended to organisations across the board is perhaps somewhat surprising.

Edelman’s key for helping trust flourish – focus on creating meaning through shared identity and values between people. Key to creating strong employee engagement, but tougher in the current environment.

The second report he points to is the World Economic Forum’s Top Trends of 2015 which shows a growing lack of confidence in leadership.